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MERGERS
Media Giants Set $8 Billion Merger (WP)
Qwest US West Merger Cleared by FCC if They Meet Conditions (WSJ)
Radio One to Add 21 Stations (WP)
Telecommunications Merger Act of 2000 (House)
Deutsche Telekom is Still Hungry for a Big Deal (WSJ)
Push for New Magazine May Test AOL-Time Warner Synergy (NYT)

OWNERSHIP
F.C.C. to Promote a Trading System to Sell Airwaves (NYT)
Revitalized UPN Is at Center of a Struggle for Ownership (NYT)

ED TECH
The Soul of a New University (NYT)

INTERNET
Digital Commerce: Case Illustrates Entertainment Industry's
Copyright Power (NYT)
China Reverses Harsh Internet Rules, Easing Threat to Trade (WSJ)
What's in a Name? Arcane Internal Bickering, Internet Agency Learns
(NYT)
Senior Surfers Rushing Online (USA)
Internet Instills Family Values -- Really (USA)

TELEVISION/CABLE
ABC Backs Off Threat to Pull Programs Off Houston Time Warner Cable
Systems (WSJ)
The Rural Local Broadcast Signal Act (House)

TELEPHONY
MCI May Pay $100M To Settle Lawsuit Focuses On High 'Casual Calling'
Rate (USA)
You've Got...A Phone Call? AOL Quietly Builds a Telecom Empire (WSJ)

COPYRIGHT
Case Illustrates Entertainment Industry's Copyright Power (NYT)

MERGERS

MEDIA GIANTS SET $8 BILLION MERGER
Issue: Merger
Tribune, the Chicago-based media conglomerate best known for its flagship
newspaper, the country's third-largest metropolitan daily, will merge with
Times Mirror Co., the Los Angeles-based publisher of the Los Angeles Times,
the Baltimore Sun and Newsday, the Tribune said early this morning.
Tribune's acquisition of the Los Angeles Times alone would represent the
largest newspaper purchase since the New York Times spent more than $1
billion to acquire the Boston Globe in 1993. The Tribune said that under the
terms of the stock and cash deal, which was valued at $8 billion, Tribune
would control the operations of the combined companies, which would be
headquartered in Chicago and headed by John Madigan, chairman of Tribune.
The combined company would be a newspaper, magazine and television
powerhouse.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A1), AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/business/A63929-2000Mar13.html)
See Also:
TRIBUNE COMPANY IS SEEN IN TALKS ON UNION WITH TIMES MIRROR
[SOURCE: The New York Times (Online), AUTHOR: Felicity Barringer]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/tribune-mirror.html)

QWEST US WEST MERGER CLEARED BY FCC IF THEY MEET CONDITIONS
Issue: Merger
The Federal Communications Commission granted conditional approval of the
Qwest/US West merger this past Friday. The deal can't close until the two
carriers submit details on how Qwest will diverse itself of all of its
long-distance business in US West territory, about 6% of Qwest's customers
in that market. Over the last week, the relationship between Qwest and US
West became shaky after Qwest held acquisition discussions with Deutsche
Telekom without US West's knowledge. US West executives felt that the
discussions constituted a violation of the merger agreement but are still
pushing for the merger to happen. The pending merger is valued at $50
billion.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B12), AUTHOR: Stephanie Mehta and Kathy Chen]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB952896649643140148.htm)
See Also:
FCC APPROVES QWEST/US WEST MERGER
Issue: Merger
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved applications to
transfer control of licenses and lines from US WEST (US WEST) to Qwest
Communications International (Qwest). This approval is subject to the
Commission's determination that Qwest's divestiture of its long distance
customers in US WEST's region complies with its legal requirements to cease
providing interLATA, or long distance, services in US WEST's territory.
Additionally, Qwest's divestiture and the Commission's approval must be
completed prior to closing the merger.
Action by the Commission March 8, 2000 by Memorandum Opinion and Order (FCC
00-91). Chairman Kennard, Commissioners Ness, Powell and Tristani, with
Commissioner Furchtgott-Roth concurring in part, dissenting in part and
issuing a separate statement.CC Docket No.: 99-272 Common Carrier Bureau
contact: Henry Thaggert at 202-418-7941
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/News_Releases/2000/nrcc0017.html)

RADIO ONE TO ADD 21 STATIONS
Issue: Radio/Mergers
Radio One will announce today that it will purchase 21 radio stations for
more than $1.36 billion, in a series of deals that will more than double the
revenue of the onetime D.C. community radio outfit, making it the largest
African American media company in the country. Radio One's acquisition
spree, which will result in a bolstered presence in the Midwest and
Southeast, will give the company a 48-station national reach and is
outpacing even that of the consolidation crazed radio industry. "Within
three to five years, there will be full consolidation," meaning that the
bulk of the 4,000 revenue-producing stations around the country will be
owned by six or so major radio companies, including Radio One, predicts Tim
Wallace, an analyst with Radio One underwriter Banc of America Securities
LLC.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A5), AUTHOR: Yuki Noguchi]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/business/A62179-2000Mar12.html)

TELECOMMUNICATIONS MERGER ACT OF 2000
Issue: Mergers
Tuesday, March 14, 2000 10:00 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn House Office Building
Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection hearing
on the Telecommunications Merger Act of 2000.
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://com-notes.house.gov/schedule.htm)

DEUTSCHE TELEKOM IS STILL HUNGRY FOR A BIG DEAL
Issue: Internetaional
Unable to come to an agreement with Qwest due to their pending merger with
US West, Deutsche Telekom is looking through its little black book for other
possible acquisition targets. At the top of the list are Equant, a Dutch
company with headquarters in Atlanta, Global Crossing, and Cable & Wireless,
based in the UK. Two years ago, Deutsche Telekom considered bidding for
Cable & Wireless but was scared off by the high price tag and complications
with C&W's holdings in Hong Kong Telecom. C&W just recently spun off its
Hong Kong Telecom holdings. Deutsche Telekom is also eyeing Telefonica SA of
Spain and France Telecom. It had lost a bid to acquire Telecom Italia last
year.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A21), AUTHOR: William Boston]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB952888998155339007.htm)

PUSH FOR NEW MAGAZINE MAY TEST AOL-TIME WARNER SYNERGY
Issue: Mergers
Susan Wyland, managing editor of Real Simple, a new magazine from Time,
showed off proof pages of the first issue. She pointed to an artful,
stylishly minimalist photograph illustrating the article "The Fastest,
Easiest Way to Clean Your Bathroom." Do photographs of toilet bowls make a
magazine? The editors of Time Inc. think so, and so does theirprospective
partner, America Online, which has been working with theReal Simple staff to

plan promotion for the magazine. Whether the affiliation with AOL helps the
introduction of Real Simple will be closely watched at Time Inc. It is, in
its relatively small way, a test run of the larger possibilities for synergy

between America Online and Time Warner. In the first month of Real Simple's
arrival,
the AOL welcome page will contain a link to a Real Simple Web site. The
site will feature AOL message boards and chat rooms concerned with Real
Simple issues. It will also have a special subscription offer for AOL
subscribers that is now planned to last at least a year. "AOL and Real
Simple have the same mission: to simplify the consumer's life," Ann S.
Moore, president of the People division of Time, which is publishing the
magazine, said.
"We can leverage the Time assets to promote the
magazine, and when you crank up AOL on top of that and use the power of
their 21 million subscribers -- well, put it this way, I have not broken out
in a sweat."
[SOURCE: The New York Times (C15), AUTHOR: Alex Kuczynski]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/biztech/articles/13real.html)

OWNERSHIP

F.C.C. TO PROMOTE A TRADING SYSTEM TO SELL AIRWAVES
Issue: Spectrum/Ownership
Offiials at the Federal Communications Communications Commission is
preparing new rules that would create a trading system for spectrum
frequencies. Telecommunications companies of all kinds, from old-fashioned
radio stations and telephone companies to purveyors of wireless Internet
services, could bid for underused slivers of the spectrum that are already
under the control of other companies. Labton writes: It would be a radical
overhaul of the rules governing one of the most valuable, if intangible,
forms of property in the new economy: the rights to transmit electronic
signals at specific radio frequencies that constitute the spectrum. It would
also have profound implications, not only for the telecommunications
industries, but for consumers as well. Currently, the FCC grants licenses to
users for particular frequencies and signal power. Although original
licenses were given for free, they are often sold for large sums. Demand is
higher than supply causing what FCC officials term "spectrum drought."
[SOURCE: New York Times (A1), AUTHOR: Stephen Labton]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/biztech/articles/13spec.html)

REVITALIZED UPN IS AT CENTER OF A STRUGGLE FOR OWNERSHIP
Issue: Ownership
UPN, a 50-50 partnership between Viacom and Cris-Craft, is the sixth biggest
broadcast television network. But the network is also the fastest growing
now with the addition of World Wrestling Federation programming this past
year. The WWF has helped the network build a large audience of the
highly-sought teenage male demographic. Viacom, of course, has another
little ownership deal going on: buying CBS. Viacom and CBS want UPN all to
themselves and they have given Cris-Craft an ultimatium: sell your share to
Viacom or buy out Viacom. Cris-Craft would prefer to keep the partnership to
help absorb financial loses that continue despite its recent success; it has
gone to court to stop the merger because it believes that if Viacom acquires
CBS, UPN would no longer receive proper attention. The legal point it is
making is this: Viacom is violating a clause in the partnership agreement
that Chris-Craft says forbids Viacom from making a deal with any competing
network. Viacom's position is that the merger is only proposed at this
point, not put into effect, and therefore it never violated its noncompete
deal.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Bill Carter]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/upn-future.html)
See Also:
CHRIS-CRAFT, FACING A DEADLINE, QUERIES MEDIA FIRMS ON HELPING RUN UPN
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B16), AUTHOR: Martin Peers and Joe Flint]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB952912356930694110.htm)

ED TECH

THE SOUL OF A NEW UNIVERSITY
Issue: EdTech
[Op-Ed] Information economies require higher levels of education and more
frequent education. Students are asking their relationship with their
college to be more like that with a utility company, supermarket or bank --
an emphasis on convenience, service, quality and affordability. Students are
likely to gravitate toward online instruction delivered to the home or
workplace. Textbooks are dying as learning materials are customized for each
class; distance learing allows remote professors and students to connect.
One corporate entrepreneur recently told Levin: "You know, you're in an
industry which is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and you have a
reputation for low productivity, high cost, bad management and no use of
technology. You're going to be the next health care: a poorly managed
nonprofit industry which was overtaken by the profit-making sector." Levin
concludes: Those of us in higher education have a small amount of time to
stop and think. What is the purpose of higher education? How shall we
continue to accomplish it? Not to answer these questions is to make a
profound decision, by default, about our own prospects for the future.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A25), AUTHOR: Arthur Levin, Teachers College,
Columbia University]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/oped/13levi.html)

INTERNET

CASE ILLUSTRATES ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY'S COPYRIGHT POWER
Issue: Internet/Copyright
Last month, after only two months of operation, the Canadian Internet
company iCraveTV.com was shut down by a lawsuit filed by the Motion
Picture Association of America(MPAA). The suit cites iCraveTV's core
business, to redistribute live broadcast television over its Web site.
It is illegal to redistribute television without first obtaining the
permission of the program's owner in the U.S.. Apparently, it is not
illegal to do so in Canada, but the MPAA argued that iCraveTV's methods
for keeping U.S. Internet users from accessing the site, such as asking
for an area code, were too easily circumvented. The company shut down
operations to avoid being liable for millions of dollars in damages, while
the company's president and co-founder, William Craig invented technology
that would make it possible to pinpoint the geographic location of any user
attempting to access the site. This new technology, many argue, would
devolve the Internet into a model very
much like the restricted, centralized control of cable television. "In
every context that it can, the entertainment industry is trying to force the
Internet into its own business model -- the perfect control of content,"
wrote the constitutional scholar Lawrence Lessig, whose column about the
iCraveTV case recently appeared in The Industry Standard. Throughout
history, innovation has been linked conclusively with the free exchange of
information and ideas -- by means of the public library system, in the
previous millennium, and certainly via the Internet today. If everyone
hermetically seals their content with technology, Peter Jaszi, a law
professor at American University in Washington says, "we could well end up
with a world where we have very strong protection for a rather limited range
of ultimately not very interesting content."
[SOURCE: The New York Times (C4), AUTHOR: Denise Caruso]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/biztech/articles/13digi.html)

CHINA REVERSES HARSH INTERNET RULES, EASING THREAT TO TRADE
Issue: International/Internet
China passed a new regulation which reverses a previous order that banned
products containing foreign-designed encryption software. The ban had
threatened to escalate into a trade dispute between US and China. What the
new regulation doesn't address is the requirement of foreign companies to
register the type of encryption software they use, list what employees use
it, and provide the employee's location and phone number. While all foreign
companies were supposed to complete the first round of registration by Jan.
31, few did. The Chinese commission responsible for the new regulation also
confirmed it will not introduce a "key escrow" system in which encryption
passwords must be provided to a third party, which in turn could provide the
passwords to the Chinese government. The commission acknowledged that
foreign pressure, along with China's efforts to gain admission to the World
Trade Organization, led to the changes.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A21), AUTHOR: Matt Forney]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB95288825566411888.htm)

SENIOR SURFERS RUSHING ONLINE
Issue: Internet
Contrary to popular stereotypes, older adults are already the
fastest-growing segment of the Web market and spend more time--and
money--online individually than those in other age groups, studies show.
They are flocking to the Web in droves, as a way to make friends, find
bargains and stay connected with their tech-savvy grandchildren. "There's
fickleness to youth, but there's loyalty in older people," said Stephen
Yafa, of www.Seniors.com, a three-year-old
Web site. "They are the last frontier." But for many seniors, cost remains a
barrier. Even with prices plummeting, a $500 entry-level personal computer
is a big investment for someone on a fixed income. Additionally, arthritis
and failing eyesight can make computer and Internet use difficult for older
adults. But more companies are offering software programs that allow voice
commands, and products like ZoomText allow users to enlarge words on the
screen for easier reading. "At my age now, everybody wants to use it," said
Bohie Herzer, 69, of Alexandria, VA. "It's getting to the point where,
without a computer, you can't live."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A1), AUTHOR: Dan Eggen]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61895-2000Mar12.html)

INTERNET INSTILLS FAMILY VALUES -- REALLY
Issue: Internet
[OP-ED] When the study came out last month claiming that some people are
spending too much time on the Internet and not enough time living real life,
Alcestis "Cooky" Oberg laughed. In the right hands, she writes, that
computer mouse can actually take you over the rougher bumps on real life's
road. Take adolescence. When kids hit that uncommunicative, "I don't know
those people who call themselves my parents" stage, you can reach your kids
by e-mail. For instance, even though they lived under the same roof, she
found she could get a good, long, sometimes funny e-mail response from her
teenager during "the surly years." "I never would have gotten beyond
monosyllables and guttural utterances in face-to-face real life, " she says.
She also adds that Internet has turned out to be a new, fairly wholesome
vehicle for socializing teens -- safer than fast cars and seedy hangouts.
One shy boy she knows set up a virtual drama club on the Net, with 150 kids
across the nation. Then there's Virtual Granny. When her husband's mom
visited , he introduced her to the joys of e-mail, file-attach photos, eBay,
Amazon and the virtual portfolio. She took to it all like a born nerd. She
found old pals, communicated with nieces and grandchildren, bought stuff to
be delivered to her doorstep at the click of a mouse. Anyone who accuses the
Internet of taking too much time away from "real life" must first consider
what that real life is. The elderly, for instance, are often shut in and
isolated by their health. Sometimes, they are "retired" to a different city,
uprooted from their old hometowns where they spent most of their lives and
raised their families.
[SOURCE: USAToday (15A), AUTHOR: Alcestis ''Cooky'' Oberg]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000313/2023485s.htm)

WHAT

INTERNET GOVERNANCE
Government Officials Join Voices Urging Caution on Internet
Oversight
Vote (NYT)
Controversy Swirls Around Cyberspace Report (USA)
Estee Lauder Gains Victory in Suit Over Web Use of Its Trademark
(WSJ)

WOMEN AND TECHNOLOGY
For Museum, Online Way Is Only Way, for Now (NYT)
The Dot-Com World Opens New Opportunities for Women to Lead (NYT)

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
2000 Census (Shhh!) on the Net (NYT)
Thousands Vote Online in Arizona (NYT)

BROADBAND
High-speed Access Prices Tumbling (SJM)

TELEPHONY
In Never-Bell Land, Phone Service Is Way Above Average, and
Competitive
(NYT)
Truth in Telephone Billing Act of 1999 Hearing (House)

DTV
FCC Commences Periodic Review of Digital Television Conversion
(FCC)

INTERNATIONAL
German Giant Seeks Qwest and U.S. West (WSJ)
U.S. Deputy Commerce Secretary Robert L. Mallett To Lead U.S.
Delegation
To Fifth Annual Latin American Telecommunications Summit
(NTIA)

INTERNET GOVERNANCE

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS JOIN VOICES URGING CAUTION ON INTERNET OVERSIGHT
VOTE
Issue: Internet
As members of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) met in Cairo, officials from more than 20 countries were
calling for the group to be more cautious about the elections the group
has planned for September. This came just after public interest groups
issued a report last week saying that ICANN would have to make
significant changes before a fair vote, free from the influence of
special interests, would be possible. As the first experiment in
Internet democracy, the vote will be the first step in electing a new
board for ICANN, replacing the interim board that was appointed in 1998
after the Clinton administration selected ICANN to take over the
administrative functions of the Internet's addressing, or domain name,
system. And those interim board members are eager to hand over the
reigns. However, ICANN's president, Mike Roberts, said the board would
keep an open mind until it makes a final decision on the election
process on Friday. "A lot of the proposals want a delay just so we can
look at it some more," he said. "We've been looking at it for a year
and a half."
[SOURCE: Cyber Times, AUTHOR: Jeri Clausing]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/cyber/articles/09domain.html
)

ESTEE LAUDER GAINS VICTORY IN SUIT OVER WEB USE OF ITS TRADEMARK
Issue: Intellectual Property
Estee Lauder announced a victory in Germany's District Court of Hamburg
over Internet companies Excite and iBeauty, forcing both to stop using
certain Estee Lauder trademarks as keywords to trigger banner ads on
Web sites. Keywords are terms entered into Internet search engines to
find information online. Such words have been sold to advertisers, who
want their banner ads to pop up when the words are entered. This case
has major implications for sites across the Web since keyword-based ads
currently generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Drew
Ianni, an analyst for Jupiter Communications, said that the German
decision, "is at least the first precedent out there in cyberspace
related to this type of conflict." Estee Lauder has filed similar suits
against iBeauty and Excite, in France and federal court in New York.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B14), AUTHOR: Karen Jones]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB952566850153204842.htm)

CONTROVERSY SWIRLS AROUND CYBERSPACE REPORT
Issue: Privacy/Security
Attorney General Janet Reno will release a report today that seeks to
expand the powers of law enforcement to conduct investigations in
cyberspace. The report is the product of a presidential working group
that was appointed last summer. It recommends a loosening of
restrictions on several technical and legal procedures that would make it
easier to identify and track individual Internet users. "They make the
assertion that there is all this illegal conduct on the Internet that
they must investigate, but nowhere in the report do they show any
numbers or proof," says Emily Whitfield of the American Civil Liberties
Union, which asked Reno in a letter to reject the report's conclusions.
"The report treats anonymity of Internet users as a 'thorny issue,'
rather than a constitutional right," says the ACLU letter.
[SOURCE: USAToday (4A), AUTHOR: M.J. Zuckerman and Kevin Johnson]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000309/2012177s.htm)

WOMEN AND TECHNOLOGY

THE DOT-COM WORLD OPENS NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN TO LEAD
Issue: Gender/Employment
Women are using Internet companies to find opportunities that are equal
or better to those found in more traditional "brick an mortar"
companies. As reported by the research firm VentureOne, women were
chief executives in about 6% of venture capital backed Internet firms
and held top management positions in 45% of such start-ups in 1999. In
1998, women held the chief executive position 4% of the time and
accounted for 21% of senior management positions. These numbers are
much different than those in the "brick and mortar" world. There, as
found in a 1998 census conducted by the women's research firm Catalyst,
women occupied fewer than 1% of the chief executive positions and only
3.8% of the highest ranking corporate officer positions. Internet
companies are, "definitely causing a leveling of the playing field"
said Denise Brosseau, the president of the Forum for Women
Entrepreneurs. The main reason Internet opportunities are in such
abundance for women is that there is an unquenchable need for talent.
But, Gayle Crowell of epiphany.net argues that the Internet is a whole
new playing field, "it's about brand building and knowing the consumer,
and women are great at that."
[SOURCE: The New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Leslie Kaufman]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/biztech/articles/09net.html)

FOR MUSEUM, ONLINE WAY IS ONLY WAY, FOR NOW
Issue: Media & Society
After nearly a decade of planning, the Women of the West Museum has
finally opened. At least virtually. When the museum's backers couldn't
raise enough money for a building, they decided to open a location on
the Web. The museum's first exhibition, the LoDo Mural Project,
combines a public mural project in downtown Denver with corresponding
online images and text. "Originally the museum was going to be a
bricks-and-mortar stand-alone facility," said Marsha Semmel, president
and chief executive of the Women of the West Museum, based in Boulder,
Colo. "What we are doing is what many businesses are doing -- adapting
to the changing ways people spend their time and get their information.
As if to underscore the breadth of the museum's reach, Semmel adds:
"When our site was named a Yahoo pick-of-the-week, we heard about it
from a male engineering student in Shanghai who e-mailed us." Visitors
to the site can learn about pioneer and contemporary women who helped
shape the West, like Molly Brown (the unsinkable Titanic passenger) and
Teresita Sandoval, one of the 1800's founders of Pueblo, Colorado.
[SOURCE: The New York Times (G11), AUTHOR: Mindy Sink]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/circuits/articles/09west.htm
l)

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

2000 CENSUS (SHHH!) ON THE NET
Issue: Internet
The Census Bureau has a secret: people in many parts of the country
will be able to fill out their census forms online. Even as the Bureau
has embarked upon a massive advertising campaign to get people to
participate in the census, it has not said much at all about the online
version. Edison Gore, assistant division chief for field programs at
the Census Bureau, said census officials prefer that people stick to
the "tried and proven" method of pen and paper. "We know what's going
on there, and it's very controlled. The Internet is something new."
This time out, only households that receive the shorter of the two
census forms (about five out of every six households nationwide) may
submit their information electronically, others must stick to the paper
form. And even those who wish to submit the information electronically will
still need the paper form, each of which contains a bar code with a 22-
digit number that must be entered to call up the on-screen version. The
site, which is off of the main census site, (www.census.gov), provides
guidance for completing the form. And if people run into trouble, the
site suggests they give up and revert to the paper form. It is unclear
whether the Internet will help the census in its primary goal of
increasing the response rate. Census officials say that Internet
collection is unlikely to encourage responses among the poor and other
groups that traditionally do not answer the census.
[SOURCE: The New York Times (G11), AUTHOR: Joyce Cohen]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/circuits/articles/09cens.htm
l)

THOUSANDS VOTE ONLINE IN ARIZONA
Issue: Internet
More than 17,000 Democrats in Arizona have cast ballots via the Internet in
the first two days of voting during a primary billed as the first
binding online election. Despite technical glitches and a federal
lawsuit that sought to block the Internet voting, more than 13,000 votes
had been cast online by the end of Tuesday. "This election was about
expanding opportunities to participate," said Mark Fleisher, chairman
of the state party. A United States District Court judge rejected a
request for a temporary injunction against the Internet vote last week.
The Voting Integrity Project, a nonprofit voting rights group based in
Virginia, challenged the Internet election on the ground that
minorities and the poor would not have equal access to voting. Deborah
Phillips, president of the Voting Integrity Project, said the group
hopes to challenge the Arizona election in court after the vote is
final.
[SOURCE: Cyber Times, AUTHOR: Rebecca Fairley Raney]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/cyber/articles/09vote.html)

BROADBAND

HIGH-SPEED ACCESS PRICES TUMBLING
Issue: Internet
High speed Internet access prices are falling, as competition between
providers has already helped cut $300 off of the price of the first
year of service. Traditional Internet service providers are scrambling
to enter the high-speed access market, and a favorable federal
regulatory ruling could help them push prices down even further this
year. New regulations -- which take effect later this summer -- slash
the fee competitors must pay to the local phone company to gain access
to a customer's home by 75 percent. This has observers predicting the
monthly cost of DSL could go as low as $29.95 by the end of the year.
That may be low enough to convince a typical consumer who is paying
$21.95 each month to an ISP. "Everybody is running to grab customers,"
said Liz Fetter, CEO of NorthPoint Communications, which offers high-
speed Internet services. Together, high-speed cable and DSL connections
account for about 5 percent of homes with Internet access in the United
States and Canada today, said Kinetic Strategies president Michael
Harris. "In the long run, pricing of DSL won't be important," said
Kevin Mitchell, an analyst for Infonetics Research. "Companies will be
giving it away."
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Chris O'Brien]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/dsl030900.htm)

TELEPHONY

IN NEVER-BELL LAND, PHONE SERVICE IS WAY ABOVE AVERAGE, AND COMPETITIVE
Issue: Telephony
Somewhat lost among the giant telecommunications firms are the more
than 1,000 small independent phone companies providing services in
mostly rural areas of the US. As phone service becomes an increasingly
important economic factor, little phone companies that serve out-of-
the-way communities find themselves in demand by new business. Set up
to serve the more costly low-population areas, they are finding that
they can branch out into neighboring towns without much added expense.
This is a result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed
federal regulators to push down the cost of leasing phone lines to
jump-start competition. But independents that do not grow seem to be
heading for consolidation. In the past, former Bell companies weren't
interested in consolidating independents because arcane regulations
made the acquisitions too costly. Now, companies that specialize in
acquiring rural telecommunications businesses are snapping up local
access lines at $2,400 to $5,000 each. Those independents that are not
selling are upgrading, installing fiber optic lines and offering
Internet access with high-speed connections.
[SOURCE: The New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Julie Flaherty]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/richmond-phones.html)

TRUTH IN TELEPHONE BILLING ACT OF 1999 HEARING
Issue: Telephony
Legislative Hearing H.R. 3011, the Truth in Telephone Billing Act of
1999 and H.R. 3022, the Rest of the Truth in Telephone Billing Act of
1999 Subcommittee on Telecommunications Trade & Consumer Protection
March 9, 2000 10:00 AM 2322 Rayburn House Office Building Live Audio
Broadcast
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://com-notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/12b6a0781fa86e88852567e50
07558f4/ba047f137cab5f9e8525689c0070d8fb?OpenDocument)

DTV

FCC COMMENCES PERIODIC REVIEW OF DIGITAL TELEVISION CONVERSION
Issue:
The FCC today began its first periodic review of the progress of
conversion of the U.S. television system from analog technology to
digital television (DTV). The Commission noted that broadcast stations
are facing relatively few technical problems in building digital
facilities, and that problems encountered by some stations with tower
availability and/or local zoning issues do not seem to be widespread.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/News_Releases/2000/nrmm0005.html
)

INTERNATI0NAL

GERMAN GIANT SEEKS QWEST AND U.S. WEST
Issue: Mergers
Deutsche Telekom made separate offers to acquire Qwest and US West,
deals that could total more than $100 billion. Qwest and U.S. West had
agreed to merge last summer but it was only recently that U.S. West
became aware of Qwest's conversations with a major telecommunications
firm, thought to be Deutsche Telekom. Many of the regulators in the 14
states in which US West has a presence had already agreed to the Qwest-
US West merger. If Deutsche Telekom were to secure a deal with Qwest,
the entire process would have to be restarted. Deutsche Telekom's
intent in offering two separate deals is to give Qwest the bulk of the
premium it is willing to pay for both companies, but show respect for
Qwest's deal with US West.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal(A3), AUTHOR: Rebecca Blumenstein]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB952556369441537877.htm)

U.S. DEPUTY COMMERCE SECRETARY ROBERT L. MALLETT TO LEAD U.S.
DELEGATION TO FIFTH ANNUAL LATIN AMERICAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS SUMMIT
Issue: International
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Robert L. Mallett and Peru's Minister
of Transportation, Communications and Construction, Alberto Pandolfi
will co-host the fifth Latin American Telecommunications Summit in
Lima, Peru March 13-16, 2000. The Ministerial-level conference provides
an opportunity for senior U.S. and Latin American government officials
and telecommunications industry leaders to discuss major policy issues
affecting the region.
[SOURCE: NTIA]
(http://204.193.246.62/public.nsf/docs/8C90FBD7182638498525689B007608D0
)

--------------------------------------------------------------

(c)Benton Foundation 2000. Redistribution of this email publication -- both
internally and externally -- is encouraged if it includes this message.

--------------------------------------------------------------

The Benton Foundation's Communications Policy and Practice (CPP)
(www.benton.org/cpphome.html)

Communications-related Headline Service is posted Monday through Friday. The
Headlines are highlights of news articles summarized by staff at the Benton
Foundation. They describe articles of interest to the work of the Foundation
-- primarily those covering long term trends and developments in
communications, technology, journalism, public service media, regulation and
philanthropy. While the summaries are factually accurate, their often
informal tone does not represent the tone of the original articles.
Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (kevint( at )benton.org), Rachel Anderson
(rachel( at )benton.org), Jamal Le Blanc (jamal( at )benton.org), Nancy Gillis
(nancy( at )benton.org), and Harry Chauss (harry( at )benton.org) -- we welcome your
comments.

The Benton Foundation works to realize the social benefits made possible
by the public interest use of communications. Bridging the worlds of
philanthropy, public policy, and community action, Benton seeks to shape
the emerging communications environment and to demonstrate the value of
communications for solving social problems. Through demonstration
projects, media production and publishing, research, conferences, and
grantmaking, Benton probes relationships between the public, corporate,
and nonprofit sectors to address the critical questions for democracy in
the information age. Other projects at Benton include:
Connect for Kids (www.connectforkids.org)
Open Studio: The Arts Onlinwww.openstudio.org)
Destination Democracy (www.destinationdemocracy.org/)
Sound Partners for Community Health (www.soundpartners.org/)

POLITICAL DISCOURSE
Networks Plan Sweeping Coverage of Primaries (NYT)

INTERNET
ICANN Says U.S. Will Let It Prosecute Cybersquatters, Domain
Profiteers (WSJ)
Online Mental-Health Therapy In Its Formative Years (USA)
Free-Speech Fight Over Webmaster (SJM)

PRIVACY
Commission Will Work to Protect Children after Legislation Fails
(CyberTimes)

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Outrage Pending Over Net Patents Grants Seen As Helping Businesses
While Harming Free Exchange Of Ideas (USA)

MERGERS
Verisign to Buy Network Solutions in Stock Swap Valued at $21
Billion (WSJ)
Radio Giant Clear Channel Agrees to Sell 72 Stations (WP)
Qwest Deal With US West Casts Shadow over Merger (WP)

WIRELESS
Race for Wireless Takes Off in Europe (WSJ)

POLITICAL DISCOURSE

NETWORKS PLAN SWEEPING COVERAGE OF PRIMARIES
Issue: Television/Political Discourse
The three major broadcast networks and their cable counterparts will provide
coverage of today's presidential primaries that will almost resemble
coverage of a general election. ABC, CBS and NBC will be updating their
evening news broadcasts and breaking into regular programming with the
latest news as polls close in 16 states across four time zones. The cable
news channels, including CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, will offer nonstop
election news beginning early in the evening. The broadcast networks are
hoping that they will share in some of the audience growth that the cable
networks have experienced during recent primary coverage. Both cable and
broadcast networks are concerned, however, that early results of the exit
polls will be posted on the Internet. Slate, the online magazine, posted the
overall results of a news service poll as the votes were still being cast in
New Hampshire and South Carolina.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A17), AUTHOR: Felicity Barringer]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/030700wh-media.html)

INTERNET

ICANN SAYS U.S. WILL LET IT PROSECUTE CYBERSQUATTERS, DOMAIN PROFITEERS
Issue: Internet
The U.S. government is against empowering ICANN, the organization
responsible for maintaining the Internet-address system, to prosecute
domain-name profiteers, saying instead that it would prefer ICANN, "remain a
private-sector entity that can move quickly with some agility," commented
ICANN's chief executive officer Michael Roberts. ICANN is currently trying
to help American Samoa regain ownership of its top-level domain name --
".as" in this case -- from an American Samoan who bought the domain name in
1997. Top-level domain names are the two letters given to every country as
suffixes on a Web address to identify that country on the Internet. American
Somoans are beginning to realize the commercial potential of their domain
names and are increasingly turning to ICANN for help in restoring what they
feel is their exclusive property.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal Interactive, AUTHOR: Dow Jones Newswire]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB952374963886664359.htm)

FREE-SPEECH FIGHT OVER WEBMASTER
Issue: Internet/Free-speech
Daniel Curzon-Brown, a veteran English teacher at City College of San
Francisco, is suing the Webmaster of Teacherreview.com, after postings on
the site called him "homomaniac" and "mentally ill". The site posts
anonymous critiques of instructors at the college. Curzon-Brown claims the
Webmaster, who is responsible for maintaining the site, should also be
responsible for any lies and libelous material posted online. Opponents to
the lawsuit say that a Webmaster should be granted the same immunity from
libel as an Internet service provider (ISP). Unlike newspaper publishers,
who are responsible for all material printed in their newspapers, an ISP is
not liable if a third party provided the information. "I haven't done
anything wrong," said the Webmaster, "I'm just a conduit for opinion." The
suit also names the college and its student government body for having
linked their sites to -- and implicitly endorsed -- Teacherreview.com. "This
is a very important case," said Ann Brick of the ACLU in San Francisco.
"Sites like this are the quintessential forum for expression of
opinion...The First Amendment protects comments that are both unkind and
flattering."
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury Times Interactive, AUTHOR: Lisa Fernandez]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/webwar030700.htm)

ONLINE MENTAL-HEALTH THERAPY IN ITS FORMATIVE YEARS
Issue: Internet/Health
While the number of Internet mental-health services are growing rapidly,
there's still no solid evidence that good therapy can be done online,
experts say. "A lot of concern remains about doing online therapy because we
don't have the research yet to show it's safe and effective. I think what's
going on is not therapy, it's education,'' says psychologist John Grohol, an
online mental-health pioneer from Austin, Texas. According to Grohal, the
Web has an estimated 12,000 mental-health sites. A new kind of relationship
is forming here that a lot of people aren't talking about," he says. "It
remains to be seen whether this is a viable relationship in and of itself,
or if it's only an adjunct to a real-world therapist." Confidentiality is a
major concern about such services provided online.
[SOURCE: USAToday (3D), AUTHOR: Marilyn Elias]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000307/2004044s.htm)

PRIVACY

COMMISSION WILL WORK TO PROTECT CHILDREN AFTER LEGISLATION FAILS
Issue: Internet
The 19-member, Commission on Child Online Protection will meet for the first
time next week, over a year after it was created after First Amendment
problems scuttled two laws aimed at shielding children from online
pornography. The commission is made up of a diverse group of children's
advocates, administration officials, industry representatives and academics.
Commission member Larry Shapiro, who heads Go.com, a portal for Disney Web
sites, said of the group: "There is a call to action for a private
initiative to make things happen, and I'm hoping that we will be able to
coalesce around a position that makes sense, that provides significant
opportunity for parents to know about protective devices -- whether they are
technical or educational tools -- and that there will be an Internet
community out there that adopts these principles."
[SOURCE: Cyber Times, AUTHOR: Jeri Clausing]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/cyber/capital/07capital.html)

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

OUTRAGE PENDING OVER NET PATENTS GRANTS SEEN AS HELPING BUSINESSES WHILE
HARMING FREE EXCHANGE OF IDEAS
Issue: Intellectual Property
The Internet community has been outraged by a recent patent that some
believe benefits commercial interests at the expense of the Web as a whole.
Last Friday it was announced that the patent office had granted Amazon.com a
patent on its affiliate program -- the arrangement through which Web sites
that link to Amazon get a cut of all the purchases that were referred from
their site. It is currently estimated that up to 20% of Web site sales come
via affiliates, says Herby Olschewski, convention chairman for
AffiliateForce.com. Tim O'Reilly, a publisher of computer books and an
activist for open source, calls patents like Amazon's a rip-off , and
believes it signals a major change in the way the Internet works. "They're
profiting from all the things that came before," he says. "The people who
are filing these patents come in as parasites."
[SOURCE: USAToday (3D), AUTHOR: Elizabeth Weise]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000307/2004041s.htm)

MERGERS

VERISIGN TO BUY NETWORK SOLUTIONS IN STOCK SWAP VALUED A $21 BILLION
Issue: Mergers
Internet software maker VeriSign said today that it has agreed to acquire
Web domain-name registrar Network Solutions in an all-stock transaction the
companies valued at $21 billion. The deal combines two Internet leaders:
Network Solutions provides registration services for companies and
individuals seeking Web addresses, and VeriSign is the largest provider of
data-security software that assists in electronic commerce over the
Internet. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal Interactive, AUTHOR: Wall Street Journal Staff
Reporter]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB952433102500587435.htm)

RADIO GIANT CLEAR CHANNEL AGREES TO SELL 72 STATIONS
Issue: Mergers
In a move designed to put to rest potential antitrust problems concerning
its pending acquisition of AMFM Inc., Clear Channel Communications will sell
off 72 radio stations in 27 markets. The company announced its plans to buy
AMFM last fall. At the time, it said that it would sell off 125 stations.
The current round of sales is subject to regulatory approval, but more sales
should be announced soon. The merger of Clear Channel and AMFM will create a
radio giant with 800 stations nationwide. Last week, Clear Channel announced
that it would buy concert promoter SFX for $2.9 billion in stock.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E3), AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/feed/a22918-2000mar7.htm)
SEE ALSO: CLEAR CHANNEL SELLS STATIONS TO QUELL ANTITRUST CONCERNS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal Interactive, AUTHOR: J.C. Conklin]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB952350688604039684.htm)

QWEST DEAL WITH US WEST CASTS SHADOW OVER MERGER
Issue: Mergers
After stealing US West away from Global Crossing, Qwest looks like it's
going to throw it over for Deutsche Telekom [you know, the exchange student
with the motor scooter]. To add to the confusion Bell South [who has had a
major thing for Qwest since like freshman year] still has its sights set on
Qwest [but that won't work if Qwest hooks up US West first]. The US
West/Qwest deal has been gliding toward seemingly certain regulatory
approval. But what happens to US West if Qwest strikes a deal with Deutsche
Telekom [a matter of much cafeteria speculation]? "Why would they want to
get out of the deal?" asked Burgess, the US West spokesman. "Qwest has big
pipes that they have to
fill, and we've got 25 million customers."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E1), AUTHOR: Peter S. Goodman]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/business/A20979-2000Mar6.html)

WIRELESS

RACE FOR WIRELESS TAKES OFF IN EUROPE
Issue: Wireless
Initial bids totaling nearly $789 million were put forward yesterday as
companies competed in the first round of a British auction for five "third
generation", or 3G, wireless licenses. In the next 18 months, approximately
70 additional licenses will be issued in the rest of Europe. The licenses
are valuable because they would allow millions of Europeans who don't own
personal computers to access the Web via their cell phones. 3G phones could
generate $13 billion of e-commerce world-wide by 2003. "If you lose a 3G
license, you're out of the game for 10 years," says John Jensen of Chase
Manhattan Corp. The auction system could lead to inflated license prices, as
happened with the U.S. digital-wireless auctions a few years ago. Japan is
expected to be the first country in the world to offer 3G wireless services,
starting next year, followed by Finland and Britain.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A18), AUTHOR: Gautam Naik]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB952382249379493508.htm)

--------------------------------------------------------------

(c)Benton Foundation 2000. Redistribution of this email publication -- both
internally and externally -- is encouraged if it includes this message.

--------------------------------------------------------------

The Benton Foundation's Communications Policy and Practice (CPP)
(www.benton.org/cpphome.html)

Communications-related Headline Service is posted Monday through Friday. The
Headlines are highlights of news articles summarized by staff at the Benton
Foundation. They describe articles of interest to the work of the Foundation
-- primarily those covering long term trends and developments in
communications, technology, journalism, public service media, regulation and
philanthropy. While the summaries are factually accurate, their often
informal tone does not represent the tone of the original articles.
Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (kevint( at )benton.org), Rachel Anderson
(rachel( at )benton.org), Jamal Le Blanc (jamal( at )benton.org), Nancy Gillis
(nancy( at )benton.org), and Harry Chauss (harry( at )benton.org) -- we welcome your
comments.

The Benton Foundation works to realize the social benefits made possible
by the public interest use of communications. Bridging the worlds of
philanthropy, public policy, and community action, Benton seeks to shape
the emerging communications environment and to demonstrate the value of
communications for solving social problems. Through demonstration
projects, media production and publishing, research, conferences, and
grantmaking, Benton probes relationships between the public, corporate,
and nonprofit sectors to address the critical questions for democracy in
the information age. Other projects at Benton include:
Connect for Kids (www.connectforkids.org)
Open Studio: The Arts Onlinwww.openstudio.org)
Destination Democracy (www.destinationdemocracy.org/)
Sound Partners for Community Health (www.soundpartners.org/)

DIGITAL DIVIDE
A Governor Would Give Every Student a Laptop (NYT)
FCC Chairman Kennard Receives Award from Educators (FCC)
Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service (FCC)

INTERNET
Report Sees Major Hurdles for Internet Election (CyberTimes)
Judge Says School May Have Overreacted to Student's Site
(CyberTimes)
Doubleclick Puts Off Its Plan For Wider Use Of Personal Data (NYT)
U.S. Unveils New Quarterly Index to Track E-Commerce (WSJ)

TELEVISION/CABLE
Reprieve for Houston TV Station (NYT)

NEWSPAPERS
In Seattle, a Novel Pact Between Two Newspapers Ignites a War (WSJ)

CONGRESS
Case, Levin Again Face Senators' Skepticism (WP)
Senate Passes Bill To Privatize Communication Satellite Network
(SJM)
Truth in Telephone Billing (House)

WIRELESS
Italy's Tascali Joins With 2 Publishers to Seek Mobile-Phone
Internet License (WSJ)

SPECTRUM
FCC is Set to Approve Rules on Airwave Band (WSJ)

DIGITAL DIVIDE

GOVERNOR WOULD GIVE EVERY STUDENT A LAPTOP
ISSUE: Digital Divide
Gov. Angus King of Maine announced a plan today to give every seventh grader
in the state a laptop with Internet service beginning the Fall of 2002. The
$65 million plan was immediately met with skepticism from members of the
Legislature. The Governor suggests that $50 million from the state's
unallocated budget surplus be put in a permanent endowment, along with $15
million in matching funds from federal and private sources, to pay for the
computers. According to Senator Mark W. Lawrence, "essentially taking a
chunk of money, setting up a foundation -- that's very different and I think
that's going to be debated in the Legislature."
[SOURCE: New York Times (A12), AUTHOR: New York Times Staff]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/030300maine-compute-edu.html

FCC CHAIRMAN KENNARD RECEIVES AWARD FROM EDUCATORS
Issue: Universal Service
Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard accepted the 2000
Eagle Award from the United States Distance Learning Association (USLDA) for
his work in improving education and distance learning. "It is a tribute to
Chairman Kennard's vision that more than one million public, private and
parochial school classrooms have been linked to the Internet with E-Rate
funding," noted USDLA Executive Director John G. Flores. "And the program is
helping to reduce the "digital divide," with 70% of the second year funding
going to schools from the lowest income areas." "I am very happy to accept
this award. But I am even happier that because of the E- Rate we have
connected hundreds and thousands of classrooms and libraries to the
Internet. We have begun to better educate our children for the 21st
century," Chairman Kennard said. "Our challenge now is to ensure that no one
gets left behind in the Broadband Internet Age. This year we have requested
that 70% of the E-Rate funding be targeted to schools in traditionally
low-income areas. We cannot afford not to bridge the digital divide."
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Miscellaneous/News_Releases/2000/nrmc0011.html)
See Also:
STUDY FINDS E-RATE IS ACHIEVING ITS GOAL OF BUILDING INTERNET FRAMEWORK FOR
21ST-CENTURY SCHOOLS
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation]
(http://www.benton.org/e-rate/pressrelease.html)

FEDERAL-STATE JOINT BOARD ON UNIVERSAL SERVICE
Issue: Universal Service
The Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service will hold an open meeting
on Monday, March 6, 2000, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m., in the Commission Meeting
Room at the Federal Communications Commission, 445 - 12th Street, SW,
Washington, DC 20554. At the meeting, the Federal-State Joint Board will
address issues related to high-cost universal service support. This meeting
will be open to the public. For further information, please contact Gene
Fullano, Accounting Policy Division, Common Carrier Bureau, at (202)
418-7400, TTY (202) 418-0484.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Public_Notices/2000/da000435.html
)

INTERNET

REPORT SEES MAJOR HURDLES FOR INTERNET ELECTION
Issue: Internet
A report released Friday says that a plan to create the Internet's first
democracy is hampered by skepticism, conflicting goals and a general lack of
accountability. The report, written by Center for Democracy and Technology,
and Common Cause, two Washington public interests groups, does not go so far
as to suggest that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) postpone an election planned for September. ICANN's proposal would
allow any Internet user over the age of 16 who has an e-mail and postal
address to participate in the international election of a special council,
which in turn would appoint the nine board members. The main problems with
the plan are a lack of a fundamental understanding of what ICANN does among
potential voters, and a lack of controls to keep the election from being
captured by special interests. "Until these fundamental concerns are fully
addressed, this election will not be able to confer the consent of the
governed onto ICANN," the report states. Although ICANN'S primary mission
was to introduce competition into the business of registering domain names,
the last year or so has been spent on creating three so-called "supporting
organizations" of business groups that will provide the bulk of financing
for the nonprofit group. With those organizations in place, the last task of
ICANN's interim board is to create an at-large constituency and elect board
members to replace themselves. The September election's goal is to
accomplish both of these tasks.
[Source Cyber Times, Author: Jeri Clausing]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/cyber/articles/03domain.html)

JUDGE SAYS SCHOOL MAY HAVE OVERREACTED TO STUDENT'S SITE
Issue: Internet
A federal judge in Seattle has ordered a school district to temporarily
refrain from punishing a student who created an "unofficial" Web site for
his school. Chief Judge John Coughenour of the United States District Court
for the Western District of Washington concluded that the school's five-day
suspension of the student likely violated his right to free speech. Nick
Emmett, 18, a senior at Kentlake High School in Kent, Wash., created his
"Unofficial Kentlake High School Home Page" at home outside of school hours.
The site featured mock obituaries of some of Emmett's fellow students. In
the wake of the shootings in Columbine High School in Colorado, and other
schools, educators have focused attention on the students' Web sites as
early indicators of threats. Coughenour's opinion acknowledges the fear felt
by educators. The judge's opinion states that the school district "argues,
persuasively, that school administrators are in an acutely difficult
position after recent school shootings in Colorado, Oregon and other
places." But, Coughenour found that the school district had not sufficiently
demonstrated that the mock obituaries "were intended to threaten anyone, did
actually threaten anyone, or manifested any violent tendencies whatsoever."
[Source Cyber Times, Author: Carl S. Kaplan]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/cyber/cyberlaw/03law.html)

US UNVEILS NEW QUARTERLY INDEX TO TRACK E-COMMERCE
Issue: E-Commerce
The Commerce Department unveiled a new index meant to track e-commerce
separately from overall retail-sales figures. "This number is the new
benchmark - our first government economic indicator for the e-economy," said
Commerce Secretary William Daley. The index measures only products and
excludes service sites such as online brokerage and travel sites. Since
airline tickets are widely estimated to be the most popular product sold
online, their exclusion from the index mans that it will be a fairly
conservative measure of the total amount of money spent on the web. Other
economists point out that there will be a limited usefulness to the index.
"Measuring e-commerce is like measuring 'phone-commerce' in 1880 when that
technology was in its infancy. The phone quickly became part and parcel of
the broader economy, making it harder to keep it separate, and this may,
too." said Brad DeLong from University of California at Berkeley.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A2), AUTHOR: Yochi Dreazen]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB95201048539755660.htm)

DOUBLECLICK PUTS OFF ITS PLAN FOR WIDER USE OF PERSONAL DATA
Issue: Privacy
As a result of enormous pressure from privacy advocates and Wall Street,
DoubleClick has announced that it would hold off on its plan to link
personal information to anonymous data it collects about consumers on the
Internet. "I made a big mistake," said Kevin O'Connor, DoubleClick's chief
executive. "It was wrong to try to match that information in the absence of
government or industry standards, so until there's agreement on it, we will
not." DoubleClick had plans to take information from Abacus Direct, which
compiles offline information on the buying habits of millions of consumers,
and combine it with data it already gathers about online consumers. By
combining the online and offline, the company could provide advertisers with
consumers' identities and detailed personal information that would tie an
individual to his or her Internet use and buying habits.
[SOURCE: Cyber Times AUTHOR:Bob Tedeschi]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/columns/030300doubleclick-adcol.ht
ml)
SEE ALSO:
DOUBLECLICK REVERSES COURSE AFTER PRIVACY OUTCRY
[Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: Andrea Petersen]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB952019045241548818.htm)
DOUBLECLICK DROPS USER PROFILING
Issue: Privacy
The Internet's largest advertising network announced
(http://www.doubleclick.net/company_info/press_kit/pr.00.03.02.htm) that it
had made a "mistake by planning to merge names with anonymous user activity
across Web sites in the absence of government and industry privacy
standards." See also EPIC's DoubleTrouble page, Junkbusters' page on
Doubleclick/Abacus merger, Richard Smith page on online advertising, and
EPIC testimony on Internet Privacy and Doubleclick.
[SOURCE: Electronic Privacy Information Center]
(http://www.epic.org/)

TELEVISION/CABLE

REPRIEVE FOR HOUSTON TV STATION
Issue: Television/Cable
Lee P. Brown, the Mayor of Houston, stepped in to prevent a scheduled shut
down of the ABC television station yesterday by brokering an agreement
between ABC and Time Warner's cable unit to extend their contract in Houston
for seven days. The two companies have been locked in a bitter dispute over
the transmission rights to the station. The ABC station, which is owned by
Disney, has demanded that Time Warner's cable system pay a fee of 70 cents a
subscriber for the Disney Channel, and begin carrying two other Disney-owned
channels, the Soap Opera Channel and Toon Disney. Time Warner executives
have accused ABC and its parent, the Walt Disney Company, of trying to
extort an agreement that would cost Time Warner $100 million. ABC had
planned to terminate the transmission rights in Houston as of last night at
midnight, which would have removed the ABC station from the homes of nearly
650,000 cable subscribers.
[SOURCE: New York Times (Online), AUTHOR: Bill Carter]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/houston-tv-abc.html)

NEWSPAPERS

IN SEATTLE, A NOVEL PACT BETWEEN TWO NEWSPAPERS IGNITES A WAR
Issue: Newspapers
A fierce newspaper battle is brewing in Seattle as the Seattle Times
prepares to publish in the morning instead of the afternoon, going
head-to-head with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "It will be a grand
experiment, an old-fashioned content battle," said Frank Blethn, publisher
of the Seattle Times. What's surprising is that both newspapers are party to
a 17 year joint operating agreement in which they share printing plants and
delivery trucks but maintain separate newsrooms. In February 1999, the
joint operating agreement was renegotiated and the decision made to publish
both papers in the morning. Some believe that this means the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer is preparing to eventually shut down. As part of the
agreement, if either publication posts losses for three straight years, its
owner can shut it down and still keep 32% of the profits earned by the other
until 2083. "We assumed we were being sold down the river," said
Post-Intelligencer reporter Jane Hadley.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: Rachel Zimmerman and Matthew
Rose]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB952029107673531268.htm)

CONGRESS

SENATE PASSES BILL TO PRIVATIZE COMMUNICATION SATELLITE NETWORK
Issue: Satellite
The Senate passed legislation that will privatize the world communications
satellite network, Comsat. The measure, which will allow telephone
companies to bypass Comsat to get direct access to the global satellite
consortium Intelsat, could potentially result in lower long-distance calling
rates. Comsat was chartered by Congress in 1962 to keep then-telephone
monopoly AT&T from extending its control to international satellite
communications. The privatization of Comsat was necessary for Lockheed
Martin to complete its proposed deal with Comsat. The defense contractor has
already purchased 49 percent of Comsat, but could not acquire the rest of
the company because of current Comsat ownership limits that were written
into the 1962 law.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/005787.htm)

CASE, LEVIN AGAIN FACE SENATORS' SKEPTICISM
Issue: Mergers
The Senate Commerce Committee quizzed America Online Inc. chief Steve Case
and his Time Warner Inc. counterpart, Gerald Levin, about the promise and
potential pitfalls of their pending marriage yesterday. The two-hour public
meeting, during which AOL's competitive tactics were compared wit those of
Microsoft Corp., followed a similar one held Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary
Committee. The senators again attempted to pin down answers to questions on
sundry topics ranging from consumer privacy to "open access," allowing AOL'
competitors access to Time Warner's cable-TV lines. Since Internet giant AOL
announced on Jan. 10 that it would acquire media powerhouse Time Warner,
legislators and consumer groups alike have expressed worry that the
concentration of power in this unprecedented hybrid company would have
negative effects on a number of realms.
[Source Washington Post (E2) Author: Ariana Eunjung Cha]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61985-2000Mar2.html)

TRUTH IN TELEPHONE BILLING
Issue: Telephone Regulation
Thursday, March 9, 2000 10:00 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn House Office Building
subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection hearing
on H.R. 3011, the Truth in Telephone Billing Act of 1999 and H.R. 3022, the
Rest of the Truth in Telephone Billing Act of 1999.
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://com-notes.house.gov/schedule.htm)

WIRELESS

ITALY'S TISCALI JOINS WITH 2 PUBLISHERS TO SEEK MOBILE-PHONE INTERNET
LICENSE
Issue: Wireless
Tiscali, an Italian Internet and telecommunications company, has allied
itself with the publishers of the two biggest Italian newspapers in an
attempt to get a license to provide Web surfing on mobile phones. Italy is
offering five licenses to provide next-generation Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System (UMTS) services this year. Four of those licenses
are expected to go to existing mobile phone networks, making the battle for
the fifth license bitter. More than half of the Italian population owns a
mobile phone. The government plans to award the permits by August.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A16), AUTHOR: Yaroslav Trofimov]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB95203690182629113.htm)

SPECTRUM

FCC IS SET TO APPROVE RULES ON AIRWAVE BAND
Issue: Spectrum
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote as early as Monday
on rules that would save 6 megahertz of the available 36 megahertz spectrum
for two-way radio use. The 6 megahertz spectrum is designated as "guard
bands" to prevent interference with police, fire department and other public
safety frequencies. The FCC is expected to back away from an original staff
proposal to use the 6 megahertz spectrum for private-radio networks, which
have shown to have little interference with public-safety networks.
Instead, it is likely to open the spectrum to "band managers" who could
lease slices for private or commercial use, except cellular-phone services.
With passing these rules, the FCC is effectively guaranteeing that much of
the 6 megahertz spectrum would go to private two-way radio use instead of to
high-tech bidders from wireless carriers. "If the FCC has chosen to write
rules that ensure a giveaway of valuable spectrum rather than allow an open
auctions where new wireless broadband technologies could bid, that's a
tragedy," says Mike Farmwald, the founder of FreeSpace, a wireless company.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B4), AUTHOR: Kathy Chen]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB952049976476959536.htm)

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The Benton Foundation's Communications Policy and Practice (CPP)
(www.benton.org/cpphome.html)

Communications-related Headline Service is posted Monday through Friday. The
Headlines are highlights of news articles summarized by staff at the Benton
Foundation. They describe articles of interest to the work of the Foundation
-- primarily those covering long term trends and developments in
communications, technology, journalism, public service media, regulation and
philanthropy. While the summaries are factually accurate, their often
informal tone does not represent the tone of the original articles.
Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (kevint( at )benton.org), Rachel Anderson
(rachel( at )benton.org), Jamal Le Blanc (jamal( at )benton.org), and Nancy Gillis
(nancy( at )benton.org) -- we welcome your comments.

The Benton Foundation works to realize the social benefits made possible
by the public interest use of communications. Bridging the worlds of
philanthropy, public policy, and community action, Benton seeks to shape
the emerging communications environment and to demonstrate the value of
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projects, media production and publishing, research, conferences, and
grantmaking, Benton probes relationships between the public, corporate,
and nonprofit sectors to address the critical questions for democracy in
the information age. Other projects at Benton include:
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